


CONFIDENCE

by wirewrappedlily



Series: Heliotrope [3]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Author is a madwoman, BAMF Alec Lightwood, Immortal Husbands, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Minor Angst, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Tattoos, accidental magic, don't ask just read it, love you sweetie but you should not create magic while drunk, no beta we die like men, shadow world politics, slightly thick Magnus Bane
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:36:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23623993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wirewrappedlily/pseuds/wirewrappedlily
Summary: "We cannot have sex in my office. I actually have to work here, and I won't be able to do that if all I can think about is this." Magnus panted between biting kisses to Alec's throat.Alec laughed huskily, "Maia threatened me with bodily harm if I distracted you enough that she'd need to cancel the rest of your appointments today. And I think we both like the specific body part she threatened still being attached to the rest of me."
Relationships: Alec Lightwood & Catarina Loss, Alec Lightwood & Maryse Lightwood, Catarina Loss & Madzie, Clary Fray/Jace Wayland (background), Magnus Bane & Alec Lightwood & Madzie, Magnus Bane & Catarina Loss, Magnus Bane & Dorothea "Dot" Rollins, Magnus Bane & Isabelle Lightwood, Magnus Bane & Maia Roberts, Magnus Bane & Maryse Lightwood, Magnus Bane & Raphael Santiago, Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, isabelle lightwood/simon lewis (background)
Series: Heliotrope [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1692241
Comments: 9
Kudos: 159





	CONFIDENCE

"I'd like to get a tattoo." Alexander Lightwood's voice was not the one Magnus Bane expected to be hearing as Magnus came into his office for his next consult of the day. 

Alec was smirking as Magnus crossed to sit at his desk, Magnus's surprise at his three o'clock clearly exactly what Alec had been aiming for. "What did you have in mind?" Magnus asked, keeping himself as professional as he could with Alec's impish grin widening. 

"Well, I've heard wonderful things about your flower-work..." 

"Is there a particular flower you want, or message you want to send? A particular place you'd like to have it?" 

"A white frangipani," Alec clearly knew that Magnus did not know what it meant, and Magnus resisted the urge to Google it immediately by the skin of his teeth, "though I don't have a particular spot, no. Where would you recommend for a first tattoo?" 

Magnus was up and across the desk, pulling Alec in by his shirt for a hard kiss, stroking his thumb under the hinge of Alec's jaw, just shy of the deflect rune hidden by his collar. "Tell me?" Magnus asked when they had to break for air. 

Alec shook his head, standing and urging Magnus's legs around his waist before he moved to sit in Magnus's comfier chair with Magnus in his lap. Alec licked back into Magnus's mouth, and Magnus gave a tiny whine at the flex of Alec's hands on his hips. 

"We cannot have sex in my office. I actually have to work here, and I won't be able to do that if all I can think about is this." Magnus panted between biting kisses to Alec's throat. 

Alec laughed huskily, "Maia threatened me with bodily harm if I distracted you enough that she'd need to cancel the rest of your appointments today. And I think we both like the specific body part she threatened still being attached to the rest of me." 

Magnus snorted, pulling back enough to look at Alec in all of his glory; lips red and full, pupils dilated. He knew the second that the private smile Alec only wore with him spread over his mouth, that Magnus had managed to be carried away enough that he hadn't even noticed dropping the glamour on his eyes. "You should have requested the last appointment of the day, then." 

Alec smiled wider, stroking reverent fingers over Magnus's lips, "I had hoped I'd be able to make it through this without putting my hands on you. After all, I do want that tattoo." 

Magnus's eyes widened slightly, his legs squeezing around Alec as he shifted further back. "Really?" 

"Yeah." Alec answered easily, pushing his hand over Magnus's lower back, holding him tightly and undoing Magnus's attempt to put any space between them. "I want a piece of your work on me, Magnus." 

A possessive thrill went through Magnus, though he just _knew_ that Alec didn't mean to imply that he wanted himself permanently marked as Magnus's. For as steadfast as Alec had always been, Magnus still held the insecurity that Alec would eventually stumble upon something to finally trigger him to run. And how much Magnus wanted to possess and be possessed by Alec, for everyone to see...that was something that Magnus couldn't help but put into the 'too much' category; an urge to be buried lest it be what broke them. 

"A little bit of both of us," Alec murmured, moving his hand to loosen Magnus's tie, pulling it away enough that he could undo Magnus's top button and see the curve of bone at the base of his throat, a place that Alec had a habit of worshipping attention over. "A flower for me, drawn by you." 

Magnus was clinging to Alec's shoulders hard enough that he dimly worried he'd be leaving bruises, and Alec pressed his lips to that spot, sucking just shy of hard enough to leave a mark. The roll of Magnus's hips was completely beyond his control when Alec did that, his head falling back with a groan. 

Three quick, violent raps on the door of his office was enough to pull Alec away, and Magnus whimpered. "Magnus Elizabeth Bane, I swear on everything I hold dear that I will murder you both if you so much as _think_ about asking me to cancel the rest of your appointments today." Maia making up middle names for him was enough to tell him that she was at least still in good humour, and Alec snorted, his forehead dropping to rest on Magnus's collarbone. "Put your clothes back on!" 

"None of our clothes have come off!" Alec protested, dangerously close to giggling. Magnus pouted as Alec stood and deposited Magnus on his desk as if Magnus weighed nothing. 

"More's the pity." Magnus teased his fingers over the buttons on Alec's shirt, only for Alec to gently smack his hand away before he moved carefully back around the desk, resuming the seat he'd had as if he wasn't more than half-hard. 

Magnus let out a long-suffering sigh, pulling his tie from his collar entirely and undoing an extra button so that Alec's favourite spot was on full display. When he turned around and resumed his own seat, Alec's eyes were dark, but he was smiling, his tongue sweeping over the corner of his lips as he did, and Magnus visibly shuddered, cursing himself for it when Alec's eyes flashed with triumph. 

Magnus swallowed heavily, ducking his gaze to his desk and taking a deep breath, scolding himself solidly that he was a centuries-old warlock, damn it, and he should be able to keep from blushing with his boyfriend flirting with him. "Is the flower you want a message that's meant to be public, or one that's meant to be personal?" 

Alec's posture straightened in the chair, a look of determination settling over his features that Magnus usually only saw when Alec was going to broker Shadowhunter-Downworlder meetings. "I do want it to be visible." There was a growing lump in Magnus's throat, and he had to look away from Alec's blazing gaze. "It is a deeply personal message, but one I'd display with pride." 

Magnus's eyes flicked over Alec, his heart doing things in his chest that made him sincerely glad Alec didn't normally turn this flavour forthright intensity on him. Alec poured himself into their relationship the same way he poured himself into anything he was learning; but this intensity was something very different from the earnest depth of Alec's feelings that Magnus regularly and happily drowned in. Standing, Magnus walked around to lean on his desk, reaching to hold Alec's hand in meditative silence. 

"It's something of a lover letter," Alec murmured, playing with Magnus's rings, then the sparks of magic that Alec's touch coaxed from Magnus's hands, "but also something of a battle cry. I want...at least this once...to be proud of a mark permanently etched into my skin." 

His grip on Alec's hand tightened, biting through the reflexive roil of anger that went through him with both the implication that Alec couldn't be proud of the scars he bore for having tried to change his world; and the knowledge that the Clave found Alec too useful to grant his request to be de-runed and allowed to find his life outside of being a Shadowhunter fully. Magnus knew that Alec did his level best to be proud of the fact that the scars he carried from the night he'd nearly been murdered had been gotten in the name of change to the Shadow World. But for as much as Magnus made it his mission to press his reverence and worship of every aspect of Alec and his body, he could not fully press out Alec's belief that those scars were also a mark of shame that he had had to leave the changes he'd wanted so badly to make. That he'd chosen, just this once, himself over his mission, and in doing so could only see the white flag of his perceived failing. 

It was easy as breathing to lay his fingers just past the hinge of Alec's jaw, just below his ear, opposite to the deflect rune. "There." He murmured softly, and Alec's steady gaze as his face brightened and he nodded his agreement crushed the air from the room for Magnus, because even without knowing exactly what frangipani meant, Magnus knew that the love letter; the battle cry--all of it, Alec had chosen to dedicate to him. 

~

Having Alec moved back in with him, Magnus had grown to truly hate the nights that he regularly took to go down to Pandemonium; if only for the fact that they both were in silent agreement that Alec could not go with him, and Magnus's realization that he wanted Alec forever made every moment that they had the opportunity to spend together just that much more precious. 

He didn't want to cling to Alec; but he also knew that Alec hated those nights, too. And by the same silent agreement, neither of them were allowed any shame in how badly they wanted to spend time with the other. 

Alec's plan in moving out had worked in the strangest of ways. The balance struck between the two of them and the rest of their worlds was cemented into place. Alec could go for a beer with Jace and Simon, and Magnus would know in his bones that for as much fun as Alec was having, the true highlight would be to come home to him--and he knew this because he was the exact same damn way. 

The knock on their bedroom door made Magnus snort, shaking his head at his boyfriend, who just grinned wider. 

Alec had been off today, and when Magnus had come home from work to find that Alec hadn't bothered to leave the loft, the softness of his boyfriend in his loosest sweats and a nearly-threadbare tshirt had been enough that Magnus had just laid down on top of Alec where he was napping on the couch, Alec at ease enough in his space, surrounded and protected by his magic, that Alec's only response was to band an arm around his waist and hold him there. 

"You're so damn beautiful," Alec murmured, kissing his cheek softly, completely desensitized to any shimmer, glitter, or colour that Magnus usually wore to the club, "what the hell are you doing with boring old me?" 

Magnus caught Alec by the shoulders, the reached to weave his fingers into Alec's hair, "Alexander," Alec shuddered as Magnus breathed his full name, the barest brush of Magnus's lips over his jaw as he did, "you're the strongest and bravest man I have ever met. And you have no proper idea of what you do, just walking in a room. What am I doing with you? I'm claiming you, before anyone else gets a chance to. I'm being selfish with the sweetest and most stunning person I have ever met." 

Alec kissed him slowly, stuttering in its depth because of how aware he was that they were walking the line of Magnus's self-control: toeing the edge of Magnus's very vocal wishes that he did not have to go to the club. 

"Claim me back." Magnus urged softly when Alec broke the kiss, visibly stopping himself from taking more. 

Alec's eyes were dark and hungry when he looked back up at Magnus, but his smile turned soft and private as he reached for the creation on the bed. "White periwinkle." The small grouping of blooms was simple and elegant; more elegant than the rest of Magnus's outfit for that night, he had to admit, but he couldn't regret the undone line of buttons down his shirt as Alec's long fingers trailed from securing the buttonhole to running down his chest. 

"What does it mean?" Magnus asked when Alec still had not said more, and Magnus tore his eyes away from Alec's fingertip-exploration of his skin to look up just in time to see the flash of mischief in his eyes. 

"Not telling." Alec murmured, pressing a chaste kiss to the corner of Magnus's mouth just as the wards chimed the arrival of Isabelle and Jace; a Lightwood siblings game night on the cards. "Have fun." 

~

"Adaline," Magnus wheedled, though he tried very hard not to make it sound like it, "what do white periwinkle and frangipani mean?" 

When Magnus had gone to Google it, he found that he really didn't want to fall down the rabbit hole of the multiple meanings the internet would spit up. He wanted Alec to be the one to tell him what he was saying, and he cursed himself for not having already learned the language Alec seemed to prefer. 

Adaline stopped dead, her brown eyes gone wide in surprise, and behind her, Isabelle, carrying three milk crates of orchids, stopped, too, looking confused about Adaline's reaction. 

"Nope." Adaline told him after a protracted moment. If she were not half-fae, Magnus would have said that the sheer deviousness that stole over her features was impossible, but he knew better. "Not telling. If Alec won't tell you, I won't either." 

"Why?" Isabelle asked, "Why won't Alec tell you? What's going on?" 

"Alec is being coy, if I'm right." Adaline replied, grunting slightly as she hauled a sack of soil from under one of the work benches, sighing in thanks when Magnus ducked forward to help her lift it onto the work bench properly. Technically, Magnus and Isabelle were supposed to be waiting for Alec for lunch, but the bi-weekly shipments had come in late, Alec had a tearful daughter planning funeral flowers crying into his shoulder in Adaline's office, and Magnus and Isabelle were more than happy to lend a hand in the face of the chaos. 

"Alec does not do coy." Isabelle huffed as she carefully slid another two milk crates full of potted orchids onto the back table, one of them a little too precarious for any of their liking, and the instinct to freeze and not make any sudden movements had them all watching it raptly as it threatened to tip, then settled back into place. 

"He does when it's me." Magnus sighed dejectedly once they'd all released the breath they'd been collectively holding. 

Isabelle looked over at him and giggled, "Yeah, I suppose you're right." 

"Magnus, could you get those pots? Alec's too damn tall." Adaline's complaint got a giggle out of both Magnus and Isabelle, both of whom were rather towering over Adaline, but both of whom had also, at some point, run into the complaint that Alec's height was unfair. 

"She wanted a celebration of her life, not..." The daughter said, sniffling, as the door opened to the office. 

"Of course." Alec replied kindly, and Magnus could see how it had been his arms the woman had fallen into with everything about him telegraphing comfort and warmth. "I'll contact you as soon as I hear back from our suppliers." 

The client left, and Alec let out a long sigh. "What are we contacting our suppliers for?" Adaline asked, sounding like she was ready to go to battle for it if necessary. 

There was something about Alec's earnestness; something about the promises he chose to make that made the people around him willing to move heaven and earth with him if it came to it, to make sure that what he wanted done happened. Magnus caught himself idly wondering if he still knew anyone who would have gardens that, if push came to shove, could be raided for whatever it was they needed. 

"Birds of paradise. They were her mother's favourite." 

Adaline and Alec were both wincing slightly, and Magnus could surmise why. This time of year, they'd be hard-pressed to find Birds of Paradise in bloom even in South Africa, and most of their suppliers didn't regularly cultivate them. 

"We'll find 'em." Adaline determined, and Alec smiled in relief that she had his back. 

"We'll get you guys some food." Isabelle volunteered she and Magnus easily, smiling at Alec. "Get to work, hermano." 

Magnus held the door for Isabelle, only dimly worried about Isabelle getting him alone because of the look on her face as she hooked her arm through his. 

"Is this the part where I get a shovel-talk?" Magnus asked. "I was expecting it more from Jace, if I'm being honest, though the fact that neither of you have given one has worried me." 

Snorting, Isabelle rolled her eyes. "The only reason Alec got a shovel talk from Cat and Ragnor was because they hadn't seen the two of you together enough to know it wasn't necessary." 

"Wait, Ragnor gave Alec a shovel-talk, too?" 

"Oh yes. Though when he found out what Catarina had threatened Alec with, he mostly deferred." Isabelle laughed. "No, this is the part where I thank you for helping my brother. For saving him." 

Magnus slowed their walk, turning to look at her fully, the weight of her sentiment a very real thing between them. 

"I know...that none of us like talking about-about what it was like, before. When he was...before that night, Magnus, he was...shut off. As emotionless as he could get, because he wanted so much; and he knew he would never get to have both the change he wanted to make for all of us, and the chance at being happy...being in love. After it happened, and he couldn't always hide from his emotions any longer--once he couldn't chase after the change he wanted--he was a husk of himself, and all that was left was the pain, and the determination to drag himself through it for me and Jace." Isabelle fidgeted slightly, looking down from Magnus's stunned gaze with tears threatening at her eyes, "The first time I caught him smiling again...was because Adaline was teasing him about mooning over you walking to work.

"I've never understood the flowers the way Alec does; there was always too many conflicting things within them, too much intricacy for me to try to learn. But I know that Alec chooses the flowers he gives me for what he's always reminded me of--what he's needed reminding of, too: that for as strong as I am, I'm allowed to be delicate, too." Isabelle squeezed Magnus's hand, quirking her lips up. "So trust me, whatever those flowers mean. Whatever he's being coy about. It's a reminder of what he's already told you, what he most wants you to carry with you." 

Magnus swallowed heavily, "The...the frangipani. He asked me to tattoo him with it." 

Isabelle's eyes widened, but her smile broke like dawn over her face, a chuckle falling from her throat. "You look at him more than anyone else in the world, Magnus. He may want it inked onto himself, but it's still something he's chosen _for_ you." 

~

Magnus had looked up pictures of the flower; simple and beautiful as it was. He had not yet admitted even to himself that he wanted to have a tattoo to match the one that Alec had chosen; but it was there, in the back of his mind, every time he pressed kisses to the spot Alec had agreed to. When he kissed that spot, Alec always pulled him in tight, holding him close, silently acknowledging and assuring Magnus that he still wanted it, even though they hadn't managed to get around to doing it yet. 

"What are you thinking about?" Alec asked into the plain of skin between Magnus's shoulderblades, nuzzled into the heart of the tree of life Magnus had spread over his back. 

Normally, Magnus hated Alec getting anywhere near the tattoo; the reminder that, one day, Magnus would be adding a memorial to Alec among those he already carried was too painful a thought to bear. Magnus glanced at the alarm clock on his bedside table, and though he was lax and warm and pleasantly buzzing still from his orgasm, he knew that he wouldn't be able to fall asleep, even with it gone two in the morning. "Right now." Magnus murmured, then shifted to roll in Alec's arms, playing his fingers over the spot Alec had picked, "Let's go, right now." 

Alec's smile was incandescent, and he licked into Magnus's mouth with every bit of reverence in him. "Okay." 

They barely got dressed; they didn’t need to, at this hour. Magnus opened a portal directly into his office, the both of them stumbling through it with breathless laughter at the ridiculousness of it. It was somehow tinged with forbidden thrill, sneaking into his own shop in the middle of the night. 

Magnus hadn’t brewed a potion into the ink he’d set aside for Alec’s tattoo, and his magic itched behind his skin, knowing what it wanted to put into this tattoo, even if Magnus didn't. 

Biting a kiss from Alec’s lips as he put himself in Magnus’s chair, Magnus decided that, this time, he wouldn't try to hold it back at all. It was a luxury he almost never indulged in, and Alec's singular reaction to his magic was the only reason he ever allowed that luxury at all. 

The press of the gun to Alec’s skin was met with sparks of his magic pouring forth, healing the ink into place. If Alec had not been a Shadowhunter, Magnus never would have suggested the spot for a first tattoo, but Alec was accustomed to the pain of a stele, and for as unwilling as he was to cause Alec pain, this was something Alec had asked to be given to him. 

"Okay?" Magnus asked. 

Alec licked his lips, "Yeah...Doesn't hurt." 

Watching in rapt fascination, Magnus delighted as heat grew on Alec's cheeks, flushing down his chest under the touch of Magnus's magic. Magnus swallowed against his suddenly dry throat, but took care in shaping the gentle, unfurling curves of each petal. Alec's breathing was slow and steady as Magnus continued the work; and it was like the act of putting the needle to Alec's skin was enough for the art to erupt from beneath it, because not enough time passed for him to have even fully drawn it, but the bloom on Alec's skin already looked as though Magnus could touch it and find real petals beneath his fingers. 

The haze of his magic was pulsing around them, and when Magnus set aside his gun, Alec pulled Magnus in, kissing him hard and deep as he picked Magnus off his feet and had him straddling Alec on the chair. Magnus felt his magic burst like a storm cloud, and for the barest moment, he wondered if he could feel his own magic the way Alec did; the buzzing touch of it travelling over and through him and into Alec. 

The portal wasn't even a conscious thought; wasn't supposed to move over them as it did, but the next moment, Magnus and Alec found themselves tumbling back onto the golden silk of their sheets, Alec's laughter caught between them before Magnus couldn't stop himself from laughing, too, and their kiss fell apart because of it. 

Alec's long fingers stroked down the side of Magnus's neck, and Magnus gave a shudder of his own, his breath catching. Alec's brow furrowed, and he turned Magnus's head slightly before his breathing caught. "It's beautiful." 

"I...It ended up on me, too, didn't it?" Magnus asked. 

"Yeah." Alec breathed, licking his lips before he sobered abruptly, "Did you not want it to?" 

"More that I wanted it to, but didn't mean to let my magic put it there without talking to you about it first." Magnus admitted. "All my other tattoos have been put on the traditional way--my magic didn't even heal it in the moment, because they were put on by mundane artists I learned from..." 

"You wanted it, though?" Alec confirmed; the consent of Magnus putting something on his skin clearly more important, in that moment, than the pieces of Magnus's past that Alec regularly asked for. 

"I did." Magnus breathed, "A piece of us both." 

Alec smiled his small, private smile, and Magnus had to kiss it from his lips, because Alec's fingers had begun tracing the lines of the petals the moment Magnus confirmed it was something he would have chosen. Alec broke away, panting, and his blush was not just from the kiss, "I like it, on you." 

"Will you tell me what it means, now that my magic has put it on me?" 

Alec's lips pulled up gently, "Frangipani symbolizes the strength to withstand tough challenges, intense love...and unending devotion." 

The way Alec paused before the last had Magnus suspicious, for just a moment; because though that was undoubtedly what it meant, there was a change of phrasing that Alec was skirting--but he also couldn't place why. Something Alec was teasing him with, being coy about. 

Isabelle had been right in her assessment that his wish for forever was something Alec had told him and did remind him of regularly, but as Magnus's magic settled within him with the sweet, pulled-taffy sensation of having worked hard and gotten a more than just reward, Magnus forgot to wonder what more it could possibly mean. 

~

Magnus loathed, to the very depths of his soul, that the Clave found Alec too _useful_ to accept his request to be de-runed. 

Isabelle and Maryse had made it very clear that neither of them would willingly call on Alec for battle, and after what they had done to Robert Lightwood, the members of the Clave that had thought they could demand Alec's service realized that it was far more dangerous to cross the Lightwood women than it would be to let Alec remain as retired as he was allowed to be. 

So, when Isabelle called Alec about an unknown force taking out high-profile Downworlders across the entire Eastern seaboard, and seemingly reaching New York, Magnus knew that she hadn't meant to draw her brother back in; she'd meant to warn him to watch out for Magnus. 

As Isabelle had made inroads to bringing the Downworlders and the Shadowhunters of New York to work in unity, Magnus had found that the clientele of Pandemonium had themselves started including Shadowhunters into the safe space that had previously only been for them. So, when Magnus was cornered in his own club, he knew that there were enough Shadowhunters there that he couldn't let his power do the talking to the man trying to " _collect_ " his warlock mark as a trophy of the killing. 

The shot was an impossible one; Magnus knew enough about Alec's chosen weapon to know that much. He also knew that Alec was the only archer on the continent who was good enough to make it. The din of the club was enough, even in this more closed-off, private section, that the sound of the man's death couldn't even be heard by Magnus, standing just three feet from him; and rage bloomed within Magnus that Alec had had to drag himself into the field, let alone that Alec was suffering through the overwhelm Magnus had no doubt Alec was riding the edge of between the noise and the chaos of the club. 

Magnus looked around and up, and only caught sight of Alec when he moved. 

The button-up that Alec had selected that morning was undone by three buttons, and the confident, sweeping stride of him had Magnus going from more than a little furious to near-swooning. "Are you hurt?" Alec asked, every inch an avenging angel. 

"No." Magnus told him, the commotion of Isabelle stumbling in behind his back and nearly tripping over the corpse only barely enough to tear his eyes off Alec. 

"Hermano," Isabelle's voice edged towards scolding, and Alec's presence beside Magnus drew him in further, dark and protective. 

"Three more." Alec told her, only pausing beside Magnus for a moment, squeezing his elbow before moving forward, gathering his arrow from the corpse's chest with a vicious yank. Alec paused, looking at the body, then turned his attention back to his sister. "This is James Harwick." 

The disgusted flinch that Isabelle gave was enough to confirm for Magnus that they were standing over the body of a Shadowhunter. "What do you want to bet the other three are the others missing from the New Orleans Institute?" 

Alec shook his head, sighing. "If they are the ones that have been killing Downworlders, this is a breach of the Accords that we might not be able to recover from, Iz." 

"You," Isabelle asserted, "do not need to worry about that. Go play some kinky form of Prince Charming with Magnus, let Simon and me do the rest of the hunting tonight." 

Magnus reached for Alec's hand as Isabelle called it in to the Institute for body disposal, and Alec finally turned back to him, the fiercely protective set in his features sending a little thrill up Magnus's spine. "Do you want to go home?" 

Magnus swallowed, the knowledge that it was a team of rogue Shadowhunters that had been doing what Izzy had warned them about warring with the honest wish to take Alec out of the noise and away from the violence. He knew that if he told Alec he had to stay to try to help protect his people, Alec would not be going anywhere. 

Alec took a deep breath, taking Magnus by the lapels and levelling a look in his eyes that spoke of more danger than Magnus had ever seen Alec wear before. "Do what you have to do, Magnus. The only other Shadowhunters here are loyal to Izzy and I. And if you hesitate again, even for a moment, to protect yourself because you won't use your powers in front of them, then I will not be held responsible for my actions. Do you understand me?" 

"Don't--Go home, please, Alec--" Magnus was pulled into a hard, demanding kiss. 

"I have your back, Magnus. I'm not going anywhere." 

~

Magnus had avoided setting foot in the Institute at all costs, but as he barely kept up with Alec's long stride into what used to be his home, Magnus could see how this monument to sacrifice and protection had shaped the love of his life. 

Alec Lightwood was met with something near to reverence from the Shadowhunters they passed on the way to the meeting, and while Magnus knew that Alec leaving the Institute had been met with derision by some, in seeing him striding back, everyone was at least a little in awe at the sight. 

"Magnus, Alec." Maryse greeted with enough formality to drown out her usual warmth, and Magnus knew that, by rights, he should have stopped holding Alec's hand before they'd even set foot in the Institute; he was there as one of the most powerful warlocks in the Northern Hemisphere (though they did not know the half of it), and Alec was there as mediator between the gathered members of the Downworld and the Institute. Maryse could not greet either of them properly as a result; and Magnus wondered why it was Alec hadn't already let go of his hand until he saw the looks passed between the High Warlock of Lousiana and the High Warlock of DC. 

Alec took his seat between the two sides of the table; a born Nephilim, but one that had chosen a place with the Downworld resolutely enough that, like it or not, even the Clave knew. 

The last trickle of the assembly settled, and Alec waited patiently, "Now that we are all present, may we begin?" 

It was a political dance of death, this nightmare: the four Shadowhunters that had gone rogue had done so under the _encouragement_ of the very same man that had set up a trap for Alec to try to wrest his message of unity from his corpse. Magnus had never been more jealous of Jace in learning that; he wanted to kill the bastard himself. 

Magnus wasn't paying attention to the details of what the Clave had done to the remaining three culprits of the attacks; or the demands of what should have been done by his side of the table. Instead, he focused on watching Alec. It was breathtakingly deft, Alec's use of his understanding nature to cool the tempers of those who had lost people; his proposal of further measures that could be taken towards weeding out those that would commit genocide upon the Downworlders reasonable, but also edged harshly enough that it eased any lingering doubt from the assembly that he wasn't truly neutral--that he didn't truly have a care for them or their people. 

"The Clave cannot expect us to sit back--" 

"They do not." Magnus interrupted the sixth outburst from the High Warlock of Miami, his voice level. The minute tell that Alec had started to get truly annoyed with the man eased under Magnus's gaze, and he barely bit back a smile. 

"And why should we trust _you_? Sleeping with--"

"Because Magnus Bane is, perhaps, the most dangerous enemy you could ever make, Edwards." Raphael told him, breaking the silence of the vampire contingent. Magnus knew, because Raphael had told him, that Raphael had put his weight behind Alec with the other covens; had vouched for him, and then had promptly sworn Magnus never to ever admit that to Alec. It was why the vampires had only sent the heads of their New York covens. "He fought through the war you weren't even born in time to see." 

"I believe everyone assembled knows how badly the Clave needs to come to change," Alec spoke up, taking the time to meet the gaze of each of those immediately at the table on either side, "but starting a war between all of us will only lead to more suffering; and the hatred that you feel for the Clave and the Shadowhunters will only be moved to whomever wins that war once the dust has settled. We cannot make up for the crimes that have been committed; not the crimes that gather us here, and not the ones that make this gathering the first of its kind. But I believe that measures can be put in place to make things better. We just all have to be willing to work together." 

"You chi--" Edwards spat, and Magnus almost wondered if his magic had acted on his subconscious wish and stolen Edwards' voice before he noticed that beside him, Lorenzo Rey had the coppery glimmer of his magic curling around his pinched fingers. 

"You will be silent, now. You know as well as I that another war may not go our way. And this _child_ ," Lorenzo's disgust curled around the choice of word that Edwards had intended to throw at Alec, "is proving to be far wiser than you are. Perhaps your people ought to be led under someone new." 

Magnus looked back to Alec and nodded for him to continue, "The punishment of the remaining three that have committed these crimes will not be enough, even in death, to assuage the loss of those they have taken from you. I would like to see some of that loss recouped." Alec shared a look with Maia, and Magnus had a terrible suspicion that he was not, in fact, the powerhouse in this relationship. 

Maia spoke for the first time, and Magnus knew that he was likely the only person besides Alec there who could read her well enough to know just how much she enjoyed saying what she did, "We would like to request that the Clave begin measures towards...reviewing the arrests made of Downworlders whose crimes may have been committed in the protection of themselves or others. And we would like this done with representatives of the Downworld present." 

Maryse's dark brown eyes were downright gleeful as she inclined her head, "I will take this to the Consul and the Clave the moment this meeting is adjourned, and do my utmost to see it done." 

Magnus was not the only Downworlder there who had not been in on it who realized what a masterful stroke that had been, but he was one of the few who realized that it was Alec that had landed it, and the knowledge was delicious when taken into account that Alec was _his_. 

The rest of negotiations were smooth, and even when Lorenzo dropped the lock on Edwards' voice, the man looked only mildly constipated in finding himself without further complaint. 

Maryse was one of the first to leave the assembly, shaking the hands of the New York factions of Downworlders that knew her, and nodding respectfully to the rest not willing to yet believe that the Shadowhunters were capable of the kind of change Maryse had displayed there. 

As the others filtered out, Magnus took notice that Lorenzo, Raphael, Isabelle, and Maia remained; the self-satisfied smirks on Maia and Isabelle's faces nearly making Magnus snort. " _That_ was masterful, Mr. Lightwood." Maia finally told Alec. 

Alec's lips pulled into the smallest of smirks, and his eyebrows didn't quite school themselves into place to convey the confusion he was aiming for, "What ever do you mean, Alpha Roberts?" 

Raphael barked a laugh, sitting back in his chair, "I think I owe you a drink." 

"I think we all do." Lorenzo agreed, "And I believe I owe you doubly, for saving one of my people." 

"Oh, we all do on that front as well," Maia agreed smoothly, downright beaming at Alec. "I happen to know the Hunter's Moon is closed for business. Private party. So let's go." 

Magnus was blushing, he knew it; but he reached for Alec's hand again, his pride in Alec settling in his very bones, and waved open a portal to the bar. 

Madzie let out a cry of joy as soon as Magnus and Alec stepped through, and Alec laughed, dropping down to sweep her into his arms immediately, even as they moved out of the way of the others coming through. Catarina was right behind her daughter, sweeping Magnus into a hug because Alec was too busy hugging Madzie. 

"I never thought I would say this, Magnus, but I think this one might actually deserve you." Catarina whispered in his ear, giving Magnus an extra squeeze before she let him go, and wrapped her arms around both Alec and her daughter, beaming at his Nephilim. 

Alec laughed as Catarina pointedly took Madzie out of his hands to allow Dot to spring into his arms, leaving a lip print in her wake before she turned to Magnus, hugging him tight. 

Together, Alec and Magnus were conducted to a booth that was central to the bar, the "private party" turning into more people than Magnus would have ever expected. 

When Madzie ran over to him, Alec helped her up beside him, exclaiming over the illusion she was able to summon in the palms of her hands, the flowers that she made there. 

Jace and Clary arrived with Isabelle and Simon, the two best friends bickering over getting their significant others to watch one cult-classic movie that they would hate or another, only willing to listen to Magnus's tie-breaking opinion, as he had a Lightwood sibling of his own. 

Magnus and Clary had only met at a handful of family dinners; and the shock of her situation in the Shadow World had niggled at him, every time. 

Clary had spent a good portion of her childhood being raised as every good Nephilim should; but her mother had not believed in the Clave as deeply as they demanded. She took Clary, and they ran. When it had come time for Clary to be of age to get her first rune, she drew one that Magnus had only heard legend of: a rune which would allow Clary to live her life as a mundane, her Nephilim scent hidden from demons and her life separate from her powers. 

As far as Clary had been able to gather with Isabelle's help, the rune was one that no Nephilim had recorded before, and Clary had no explanation as to how she'd known it, but it was undeniable that for Clary it had been the right choice. 

"The only thing I'm really disappointed in is that I can't watch Mom coerce the Clave into agreeing to Alec's terms." Isabelle sighed to Jace, who grinned. Magnus tuned into their conversation, noting that Alec was deeply engrossed with Madzie showing him her newest magical achievement. 

"I hated the politics, but damn do I wish I could have seen it go down today." Jace admitted, shaking his head before he took a swig of his beer. 

"It was something to see." Magnus and Isabelle agreed in unison, clinking their martini glasses. 

"I just wish I could have been the one to steal that asshole from Miami's voice." Isabelle sighed dramatically. 

"Yes, I do need to thank Lorenzo for that." Magnus agreed. "He can insult me for sleeping with one of the Nephilim all he wants, but insulting Alexander is off-limits." 

Isabelle smiled, shaking her head. "You're both ridiculous, you know that right?" 

"And quite proud of it, thank you." Magnus sniffed primly, cracking up when Isabelle did. 

"Him pulling that knight-with-bow-and-arrow shtick, and you nobly defending his honour." 

"Why are we defending my honour?" Alec asked, a purple-edged white flower cupped in his hand, that it appeared Madzie had managed to conjure if her ecstatic giggling was anything to go by as she ran off to show Catarina. 

"Because you're worth defending." Magnus answered easily, fingers light as he plucked up the bloom and tucked it behind Alec's ear. 

Clary and Simon, who had turned to paying more attention to Alec and Madzie than they had been to Magnus and their respective significant others both looked as if they were about to burst with something, but with one glance from Alec, both immediately excused themselves to get another round.

Jace was pointing at Alec's flower, "Pansy?" 

"Wow. You actually remembered one." Alec was only moderately mocking. 

Isabelle's eyes lit up suddenly, and she immediately looked as fit to bursting as Simon and Clary had. 

It was at that moment that Maryse pushed into the bar, the blatant joy on her face enough to tip everyone off just moments before everyone who had been in attendance at the meeting received a fire message of the news. 

"You got it?" Jace asked smugly, as if the answer went as read. 

"Of course!" Maryse waved the idea that they would have failed away, "It was Alec's stroke of genius, after all." 

Magnus's hand found its way into Alec's, the gentle squeeze less the comfort that it had been, but more an acknowledgement of how far they had come. 

~

"Do you miss it?" Magnus asked, Alec throwing himself down into bed next to him with the languid ungracefulness of being slightly drunk. 

"Hm? Miss what?" Alec asked, muffled into the pillow. He groaned before Magnus could answer, pulling the pillow further under him and only bothering to raise his face from its depths when it became difficult to properly breathe. 

"Miss...Shadowhunting. You were brilliant today, Alexander. You're meant to be a leader. Today just brought that knowledge home." 

Alec turned onto his side so that he could look at Magnus slightly better, and reached for Magnus's fidgeting hands. "What are you really asking?" Alec murmured, drawing one hand to his lips. 

Cursing slightly because Alec wasn't drunk enough to not be able to read him, apparently, Magnus huffed, "I just...I want to make sure you're really happy. And that you know--you know that if you wanted to go back, I wouldn't stop you." 

Alec looked up at him, licking his lips before tugging Magnus down until he was fully lying on the bed beside Alec, their hands tangled between them. "I am the happiest I have ever been, Magnus. So happy that I keep thinking the other shoe is about to drop." Alec took a deep breath, and let it out, brushing some of Magnus's hair back. "You have a bad history with Shadowhunters, I know. And I know that that's why you didn't want to trust me in the beginning. But I...I think that I love you and you love me enough that if I did choose to go back...that it wouldn't break us.

"I have had offers to go back in an administrative position. I've turned them all down flat. And, really, I didn't give them a second thought after I did, or I would have told you about them before now." Alec looked a little nervous that he had kept it to himself, but Magnus found that he couldn't care; Alec was being truthful with him that if he had entertained them, he would have told Magnus about them, because while Magnus was worried that Alec wasn't content in this life that he had managed to rebuild, Magnus also knew that the choice had to be Alec's first and foremost. "Being a florist, working for Adaline, can't last forever, I know. But the only thing I know about my future is that I want you in it, and everything else comes so far second that I don't have any answers about what else comes next." 

Magnus smiled softly, releasing one of Alec's hands to brush gentle fingers over Alec's cheek until they laid over the tattoo resting just behind and below his ear. "Alexander Gideon Lightwood...Will you marry me?" 

The joy that came over Alec's features was indescribable, but when Magnus leaned in to kiss Alec, he pulled away. "Wait a sec." Alec pulled himself out of bed, wandering to the pile of clothes he'd shed, and picking through until he found the jacket he'd been wearing. 

"No..." Magnus laughed, catching sight of the ring box in Alec's hand. 

"It was my grandfather's, on Mom's side. She brought it for me tonight. I was going to arrange a romantic dinner, I was working on a speech--But, to answer your question, nothing would make me happier than to marry you, Magnus Bane." Alec resumed his position laying next to Magnus, the box open between them, and Magnus let out a laugh choked with happy tears, not bothering with the ring because kissing Alec was more important. 

Laughing into the hungry press of Magnus's lips, Alec slid the silver band from the box, reaching for Magnus's hand before they even broke apart. "Wait...it needs a mate." Magnus panted, his magic surging as he touched the ring, an identical second appearing in his hand in a swirl of happy blue sparks. Alec's breath caught, his smile so wide Magnus was sure it had to hurt. They slipped the rings onto each other's hands with a reverence that treated their love as a miracle, and it was like succumbing to gravity when their lips met next.

"I love you," Alec murmured softly. 

"I love you, too." 

It felt as if he was alight with the love and joy he had for Alec as Alec shifted to toy with Magnus's new ring. Alec raised Magnus's knuckles to his lips, the kisses he whispered over Magnus's skin enough to send Magnus's heart racing in his chest. 

"So, any thoughts on what you want for a wedding?" 

Alec burst into giggles, pressing his face into Magnus's shoulder and pulling them tight together as he did. "I want...you. And our friends and family. And that's really as far as I've thought about it." 

"That's okay. When your wedding planner is a warlock all you need is a little magic and some exquisite taste." Magnus teased, and Alec snorted. 

"I'm not leaving you to do this on your own." Alec grumbled, looking up at him. "We should do this the same way we intend to do everything else." 

"Together." Magnus smiled, tracing the lines of the frangipani behind Alec's ear. "Let me worry about the flowers, then. You can take your unruly siblings and Catarina and handle the cake tastings and the catering." 

"Do I have to take my unruly siblings?" Alec whined, and Magnus laughed, poking him in the ribs.

"Yes. We need someone there whose palate is on par with Madzie's, and they're our best bet." 

~

It took Magnus Lightwood-Bane a lot longer than he would ever like to admit. 

Years passed, filled with laughter and joy, but also tinged with the knowledge that every day they spent together was a day closer to when they would have to be parted. Magnus let himself hold onto every second he had with Alec. Made himself take the time to bask in every moment he got, because when he was alone once more, there were no mementos of Alec that would do justice to him; to how Magnus felt about him. 

The first thing Magnus noticed was that Alec seemed to be able to summon his bow to his hands at will, the shower of blue sparks undeniably Magnus's magic as it materialized in his hand. 

They had been in the middle of a fight with a Prince of Hell come to try to take the fallen throne and thereby all the powers of Edom when he'd actually noticed it. When Alec had strode before him to take on a Greater Demon while Magnus worked to close the rift that had been torn open to allow her through, Magnus had understandably gotten a little distracted from the point. 

That really should not have been the first thing Magnus noticed, considering. Because when Magnus really thought about it, the buzz of the sheer amount of power within him had been well and truly banked, as if it wasn't just him holding the power back anymore. At first, Magnus put this down to finally, after so long carrying it, having gotten strong enough to wield it. But there was always that voice of knowledge in the back of Magnus's head; that for as strong as he was, and as masterful of his magic as he'd always been, there was no conceivable way that any one person could hold the amount of power he held as easily as he held it. 

It was only on the surprise party for their tenth wedding anniversary that it actually clicked, though. 

Alec was dancing with Madzie, the young woman still absolutely smitten with her Uncle Alec, and Magnus realized that it wasn't a trick of his mind that Alec really hadn't changed in the years they had spent together. 

Isabelle had laugh lines; Jace was starting to go a little grey at the edges. But Alec remained. 

The offer to become High Warlock of Alicante--the _first_ High Warlock of Alicante--after their tangle with Abaddon had been enough, paired with Alec's unwavering support, to get Magnus to accept the position, but New York always had been and always would be their home together, and coming back had only made Magnus realize just what it was he was looking at, in looking at Alec. 

Magnus watched as his own magic happily danced in Alec's palm, the flower that he conjured to put behind Madzie's ear sending Magnus stumbling slightly to a seat for his shock. Because Alec had been conjuring flowers, he realized, for years. 

The first thought Magnus had was of the time he'd wasted worrying about Alec's mortality--but that was quickly overrun with the realization that Alec had been telling him for years that it was not something to worry about, the soft look in his eyes that Magnus had taken for an encouragement to stay in the moment more likely a nod to something Alec thought Magnus knew. 

Magnus had an exceptional memory, but for the life of him, he could not think of a moment when he could have possibly done something that would give Alec immortality. 

Alec looked over at him, and a new anxiety swamped Magnus where he stood; the idea that Alec would come to regret his choice--would eventually lose his family and come to resent Magnus for doing something to cause the-- 

Alec was by his side, taking his face in his hands, hazel eyes burning into his. "Breathe with me, Mags." Alec told him calmly, laying Magnus's hand over his heart and taking slow, measured breaths. 

The reversal of their usual dynamic wasn't quite enough to snap Magnus out of the swamping terror, but Alec's fingers began tracing at the frangipani on Magnus's neck, and the realization was enough to drown the terror. 

The night Magnus had first tattooed Alec; the magic that he'd let loose--he'd _known_ in that moment that the simple healing and the appearance of his matching mark could not have used as much power as had been used, should not have settled his powers in him as much as it did. 

"Izzy, I'm going to take us home." Alec told his sister when she rushed over to see what was wrong. "I'll call you later? You guys have fun." 

For as much as Magnus had finally let the Spiral Labyrinth begin teaching others the magic he'd made in the invention of the portal, Magnus knew that the recreation of a portal like the one that had taken them home that night wasn't something that had been accomplished--until now, the two of them falling into their own living room in the positions they had been in. Magnus breathed deeply, and the sandalwood spark of his own magic was the only one he could sense. 

"What's going on, love?" Alec asked softly, pressing his lips to Magnus's forehead as he urged Magnus into his arms on the couch. 

"I've been reliably informed that I'm an idiot." Magnus echoed what he'd told Alec the only time they'd outright fought over the impending doom of their relationship. Alec looked at him questioningly, recognizing it, but confused about why Magnus would be saying this now. "I...When--I didn't realize--" 

"Breathe." Alec interrupted, fingers practiced in stroking away tears and leaving Magnus's makeup intact. "What didn't you realize, Mags?" 

"Please tell me you know that you've stopped aging." Magnus squeezed his eyes shut. 

"Of course, Magnus. You linked us twelve years ago to the day." 

Magnus's eyes flew open wide, the disbelief plain enough that fear played over Alec's face now. 

"Did you not...Magnus, you're the one that came up with the idea." Alec got up, crossing into Magnus's apothecary and coming back with one of Magnus's older and less coherent personal spellbooks. Alec flipped it open easily, as if the page he was looking for was one he visited often. "I thought you wanted--" 

"I do." Magnus cut him off, "I do want you forever, Alexander, I always have. But...I didn't realize I'd bought us that kind of time." 

Alec knelt in front of him, and waited for Magnus to look down at the page that was displayed. 

It was from just after Magnus had vanquished Asmodeus and destroyed Edom. He'd been out of his mind on the power, on trying to control it to make sure that it could do no more damage. He'd been fantasizing about having someone he could trust enough to share that kind of power with. 

Magnus remembered giving Alec blanket access to all of his books; his reluctance on sharing the half-incoherent ramblings of this particular tome standing out to him, as it must have done to Alec. Once he'd learned that Alec had already read through most of his rarely-touched magical theory books, it had almost been taken as read that Alec would learn as much as he could about the culture of warlocks that Magnus had taken for himself, in the way that Alec was most comfortable learning. 

On the page, Magnus had detailed a binding ritual that would allow two people to share their powers--would allow him to share his powers. 

It called for their hearts to hold the same wish; called for their love and connection to be stronger than anything Magnus had ever thought possible. And for a mark chosen by each of them, shared between them. Magnus let out a shaking breath, his hands trembling as he touched the page that was stained with tears and wine. 

"Izzy thinks that you could probably pick up my Seraph blade. Why you feel it, too, when I activate my runes. I thought you _knew_ , Magnus, I'm so--" 

"Do not apologize for this right now, Alexander Gideon Lightwood-Bane." Magnus managed, sounding completely choked. "Don't apologize for it at all." 

Alec leaned their foreheads together, taking Magnus's hand and playing with his wedding ring. The ring he'd had inscribed with "True love cannot die", the matching tattoos of myrtle on their left hands another point of reminder that they had both made their intentions plain for all to see. Alec snorted, laughing suddenly, and Magnus pulled back to look at him properly. The fingers of Alec's free hand flexed, a frangipani swirling into being with the giddy dance of Magnus's magic from Alexander's fingertips. Alec smiled his private smile, the curl of it something dark and delicious. "Here I was thinking I wasn't exactly being subtle."

**Author's Note:**

> I do believe that this is the end, my freaky darlings. 
> 
> Once again, flower meanings can be found [here](https://www.flowermeaning.com/). 
> 
> Also, for those wondering: I figure that after what Robert did in the first of this series, neither Alec nor Maryse would really want the heirloom wedding ring to come from that side of the family. And Alec's "Only if you'll marry me too" in the show was just...thank you, no. 
> 
> Now if I could just drag my butt through writing what I actually told Katka I would write for her...


End file.
